Subtract 48 stream processors from the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, and you get – no prizes for guessing – the GTX 560. We find out if the green team's latest card can stand up to the competition from AMD.

As we saw previously, Nvidia's GTX 560 Ti beats the HD 6870 in most scenarios. This forced AMD to retaliate with the HD 6950 1GB. Of course, this also meant that Nvidia was left without a direct competitor to the HD 6870.

The large performance gap between the GTX 560 Ti and GTX 550 Ti has been filled so far by the GTX 460 1GB, but with some brands already out of stock, it seems that this card is slowly drifting into the history books.

Enter the GTX 560 – Nvidia's answer to HD 6870.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Stream Processors

480

384

336

192

336

Texture Units

60

64

56

32

56

ROPs

40

32

32

24

24

Core Clock

732MHz

822MHz

810MHz

900MHz

675MHz

Shader Clock

1464MHz

1644MHz

1620MHz

1800MHz

1350MHz

Memory Clock

1900MHz

2004MHz

2004MHz

2050MHz

1800MHz

Memory Configuration

1536MB GDDR5, 320-bit

1024MB GDDR5, 256-bit

1024MB GDDR5, 256-bit

1024MB GDDR5, 192-bit

1024MB GDDR5, 256-bit

TDP

220W

170W

150W

116W

160W

The GTX 560 uses a cut-down version of GF114. Nvidia has disabled one streaming multiprocessor, which means 48 fewer shaders and 8 fewer texture units. Core speed is very slightly lower, but memory speed remains the same. This leaves the GTX 560 as essentially a higher clocked GTX 460 1GB.

The GTX 560's TDP is 20W lower than that of the GTX 560 Ti. Of course, this is before manufacturer overclocks which, as you will find out, narrow this gap considerably. Also notable is the fact that the GTX 560 achieves higher clockspeeds with lower TDP compared to the GTX 460, which goes to show how far the 40nm process has come.

Nvidia has released a new set of beta drivers to go with the GTX 560. Version 275.27 incorporates some minor performance enhancements, improved display scaling options and Nvidia Update. See more details here.

We have with us two GTX 560s courtesy of Asus and Gainward. Let's take a look at their custom solutions.